RIDGEFIELD — Delays and mistakes on the South Royle Road improvement project in Ridgefield led Steve Stuart, the Ridgefield city manager, to issue a public apology for the star-crossed project’s woes.
“It’s not okay,” he wrote. “I/we are sorry. A social media post can’t be long enough to detail all the reasons for delay and mistakes which have been made. As a team — including both the city and private contractors — they’re being corrected and learned from, and we will do better.”
Stuart shared fault between the city and contractors and did not elaborate on the causes of the delays, but a recently updated frequently asked questions page said that the largest delays stemmed from coordinating with 14 different utility providers to move their overhead lines into a joint utility trench. The page says that many of the utilities wanted to use their own contractors for the work, and some were difficult to get responses from.
A representative for the general contractor on the project, Northwest Construction, told The Columbian that they are not part of the mistakes or delays.
